The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1887-02-12
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES.
OLD SETTLERS.
.yupGr EDWIN SHERMAN LELAND.
HIS Eirly LIE in Hlsaehusens-Trp West
IL Oilra -EIriy Observation-Disclosures
at Me Bm-Famos Murder Case
The People, &C., Us Sgnor-Ac-
qmttdi Of t9e Judgs's Gent
on a Second Trial.


The subject of our sketch was of New Eng
land parentage. His parents were born a
Grafton in the county Of Worcester and stat
of Mas .aehu.etts, where they resided on tn
farms of their respective parents prior L
their marriage. His father, sherman lie
land, studied law asd became prominen
member of the Massachusetts bar at Boston
Though he was at one time in the state sen
ate ami beclme president of that body, an
though he once ran for congress and literally
not fguratlvely, came within one Of beini
elec,el, his life was almost entirely that of
lawyer or judge During the last twenty
three years Of his life he was judge Of tn
prooale of Norfolk county. For short tin,
during the war Of 1872 he was a captain il
the army and located al or near Eas,port
which il now in the state Of Maine.
Edwin Sherman wa the eldest of Il family
of nine children, al Of whom except himsel
and TWO sisters, Mrs. Henderson and Mrs
Stevens, now living at Portland, Oregon, arr
deceased. He was born at Dennysyile q
small village near ELsiport, on the 18th day
OF August, 1912. This place is so near the
eastern DO indary of Maine that when he
think, of the shOrtness Of the distance be-
tween his birth place and foreign land, and
how near he came TO being foreigner, it be.
gets feeling Of sympathy for those who come
here from other lands, and encourages the
thought that a person ought to have the right
10 live where he pleases on this earth 50
long as he behaves with propriety and obeys
the laws, and for this, or for some other rea
ron, he yet sympathiies with the signers Of
the declaration Of independence, as to their
views on this subject, though The Circum'
stances then existing may materially differ
from those of the present time.
When he was about two years Of age the
family removed to Roxbury, which Was then
y town adjoining Boston, and which is now
. portion OF il, where he resided until he
moved to Ottawa During the time he lived
in Roxbury he received the education Of
forded by the public schools and by the
study Of law in Boston in the Office oil his
father. On the 10Th Of September. 1884, he
folk county. On the S0th 4: October, 1885,
he left home for Ottawa, where his cousin,
Lorenzo Leland, who had been fellow stud.
ont with him in his fathers Office. was then
located, and where he arrived a month later
lie went by the way Of Philadelphia, where
he apcnt folr a. five days visiting among
relations. From there he went to Pittsburgh
and down the Ohio and up the Mississippi
and Illinois rivers to Peru, aud from Peru
by stage to Ottawa With the exception Of
the time spent in Philadelphia. the month
was devoted With reasonable diligen; to
travelling, which shows quite contrast be-
tween then and now as TO the time necessary
for such a journey. OF the four members of
! he bar who came here as early AS he did,
George W. Forsyth, Adam Y. Smith, Seth B.
Earyell aud Lorenzo Leland, neither is now
living. 7. Lyle Dickey, Henry o. Cotton,
J.. Z. Champhn, ". 7. S. Layinia aid J. V.
Hoes, who came short time later. are also
dead At the present time nearly all the
prominent men of the bar who, prior TO tho
election of Judge Lclanl in 1852, used to
travel the circuit, as well as many of q later
dat. have gone where the wicked cease
from troubling and the weary are at rest =
and he my wei, say, in the language Of
another:
so when cen turn my eye
Back upon the days gone by,
Saddening thoughts of friends come Ger me,
Friends who closed their course before me.
Like most Of The emigrants Of that day he
had but very small amount Of meas. His
wealth consisted Of watch and few law
books given % him by his father. little
raiment, eigh'Y.Gvc dollars in money and II
single barreliei shot gun. There may have
been few other articles Of triding value
One incident about the shot gun. which WAS
thought at the time good hit. both as to
Seth and the birds, may not now be con
aiderej amis, The owner having said seine
thing in Us praise. the latter said he could
kill III )re prairie chickens with his rifle than
the former could with the shot gun To set
,le the question the parties went to Gurley'c
field, wuere Ottawa Centre is now. and Far
well shot one 90 the north line Of the fence
A large number flew across and settled OF
the south feace II was Virginia fence
and the owner Of the shot gun being on tn,
south side when he saw them coming, stOop
cd down AMI concealed himself in Oh angl,
Of the fence. from which he rose, fred At TIT
fock gen .rslly. killed nine At one shot, an'
piled them up in fence corner. Ftrwell cam
along and euQuired whether his companion
had killed one. Upon being shown the pile
lie INDUCED in some prof,ne surplusage, no
necessary 70 he repeated. Having thus 10
rether succeeded in getting ten full grow
birds, it va. concluded that was game enoagl
for one day and they went home
Judge Leland was admitted 10 the bar q